Norvic Philatelics - New GB Stamps and Special Postmarks

Lest We Forget - 8 November 2007

90th Anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele

In response to public interest and in support of significant
national activity, Royal Mail issued the first in a series of three
miniature sheets to align with Remembrance Day in 2006.
The second sheet in the series will be issued on the 8th November 2007,
and there will also be a Commemorative Generic Smilers Sheet.

The Miniature Sheet

The Miniature sheet features another new special Poppy stamp.
After last year's flowers blooming on barbed wire stems, the
Passchendaele stamp uses the pattern
formed by the black stamens and inner edges of the petals - although
based on photographs of real flowers, it dramatically suggests the
silhouetted forms of struggling soldiers
which were some of the most striking images of the long muddy battle.
The miniature sheet also includes a block four 78p country definitives,
one for each of the countries of the UK.

Technical details:
The sheet is designed by hat-trick design and printed by De La Rue
Security Print in lithography (creating more new country stamps). The
background photo is from the Imperial War Museum collection.
The Poppy stamp is perforated 14½x14 and the definitives 15x14.
The sheet size is 124x71 mm. On the poppy stamp in both the miniature
sheet
and the Generic Sheet the year 2007 is 'reversed out' of the phosphor
band at the lower left of the stamp.
Stamp and postmark images are Copyright 2007 by Royal Mail; other
images are copyright Norvic Philatelics.

Now that we have the actual sheets we can report
that, as with 2006, the 'labels' are not separately perforated, that
is, the description and memorial image form one complete label the
equivalent of 5 normal labels, as shown more clearly on the enlarged
image. The sheet borders and description 'labels' (but not the
memorials) are printed with silver ink. These sheets require very
careful handling as the silver ink rubs off!

Remembrance Generic Sheet (Smilers Stamps) - Letters From the Front

A generic sheet consisting of 20 x 1st class poppy stamps will also
be available, designed by hat-trick design and printed by Cartor
Security Printers.

The border incorporates extracts from the poem "For the Fallen" by
Laurence Binyon."As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
as the starts that are starry in the time of our darkness,
to the end, to the end, they remain."

The labels show images and details of personnel from the front-line
with typographic copies of
original letters they wrote to their loved ones. The people depicted
are:
- Private Harry Brown 2nd King's Royal Rifle Corps
- Second Lieutenant Percy Boswell 8th Battalion the King's Own
Yorkshire Light Infantry
- Dorothy Field Voluntary Aid Nurse
- Private William Bowen Stephens Lancashire Fusiliers

Click on the image to display a larger one in a new window.

Norvic Philatelics limited edition First Day Covers for this
issue:
Please note that the postmarks shown have been digitally applied to
these images and may be a slightly different size and in slightly
different positions.